On 30 April 1859, the Illustrated London News commented that ‘there is not much room for the exhibition of naval architecture in a sailing barge’. This was a common perception of vessels which were built as load-carrying workhorses for short sea and river transport, and which were an everyday sight, often in large numbers, in estuaries and rivers around the country, especially in the Thames estuary. They had to be strongly constructed for loadcarrying capacity, for regularly drying out on tidal wharves, and capable of working by a crew of master and mate. The seemingly identical appearance of Thames barges might suggest a conservatism in building with little regard to advances in design or technology.
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